SEBASTIAN DE CHAVES says Newcastle Falcons can find further gains as they head to Hartpury University RFC in Saturday’s Championship Cup assignment.

The summer signing made his Falcons debut in Sunday’s 57-0 victory over Doncaster Knights, and despite his team scoring nine unanswered tries the former London Irishman believes there is still more to come.

“In sport there’s always that danger of complacency when you’re coming off the back of a decent scoreline, and you have to be constantly wary about it,” said De Chaves, who was a Championship title winner last season with London Irish.

“We’re very much a performance-based team, so even after a 57-0 victory the chat in our team meetings and analysis is all about where we can improve.

“We just have to keep pushing ourselves and looking for those little one-percenters, wherever they are.

“We’ve had a couple of big days this week and found some great areas where we can tighten things up even more, and it’s just that sense of excitement building again now as we get closer to another game day.”

The lock-forward is no stranger to Hartpury having played there last season for the Exiles, saying: “It’s a long coach ride down there, they’ll be on their own patch and will definitely be up for it.

“We’ve got to take past results out of our thinking and just focus on those 80 minutes on Saturday, and the boys all buy into that mind-set. We’re just excited by the opportunity to go out there again and have another crack.

“It’s quite an open ground, and you’re at the mercy of the conditions at times. Like most teams in the Championship they back themselves at home, there’s a big focus on their home games and they’ll be a different beast this weekend.

“Over the next month we’re going to have to go to some really difficult places in the Championship, and this is a good stepping point for us.”

De Chaves played the full 80 minutes in an industrious debut on Sunday, playing his part in an improved performance following the Falcons’ 21-8 triumph over Jersey on the opening day.

“I loved getting out there for my first game for the club, especially after such a long pre-season,” said the 28-year-old.

“Loads of our boys have got some good game time over the past fortnight and you can just see the enjoyment factor, because that’s why we play the game. You want to get out there, get the lungs going and get into it.

“With it being our first home game of the season on Sunday we wanted to make a statement, and we did that. Jersey away was always going to be tough for an opener, we had a bit to work on after that game and we did that leading into the Doncaster match.

“We’re always looking for that perfect performance and you never quite get it, but we tightened up on our accuracy and I think made some progress. Every week there’ll be little work-ons here and there, but as long as we keep improving then we’re happy.

“It’s always nice to nil a side, especially when we’ve put in so much work on our defence, but there’s still more we can do.”